Paap: Concern about running out of units. Picture: supplied
I believe Eskom is busy with the classic eye blind.
They are asking for a 44% increase in electricity tariffs. And of course everybody is up in arms, because such a price hike is simply unthinkable.
As it is, anybody who isn’t super wealthy is worried sick about running out of units at the current rates.
And it doesn’t help that the City of Cape Town is relentlessly cold when it comes to outstanding arrears.
I have heard of heart-breaking stories of people scraping together R100 for units, only to have R75 of that taken for arrears.
They call it piggy-backing, which has now become a dirty word in many households, as people try to make ends meet.
The electricity price situation is getting so out of hand that the City says as many as 12 000 electricity meters have been tampered with.
People are desperate, so they are bypassing the prepaid metering system so they can keep the lights on, without having to buy units.
Yes, it’s illegal, but what are people supposed to do?
Another recent report says thousands of South Africans are now relying on credit to get through the month, buying everything from petrol to food on their credit cards.
With interest rates what they are, it means they are still paying for food months after having consumed it.
The whole situation is clearly not sustainable.
Not so long ago, I wrote that we need to make greater strides towards renewable energy resources like solar, which has done wonders for the energy needs of other countries in a very short space of time.
For example, Vietnam was able to turn around its precarious power position in under two years, simply by adopting a very aggressive renewable energy program.
We urgently need to follow their example and employ a greater mix of solar, wind and wave energy to supplement our reliance on coal and oil.
Otherwise Eskom is going to keep hitting us with these ridiculously disheartening increases.
But I believe this time around Eskom is deliberately making an outrageous proposition, an eye-blind move known as high-balling.
In that way, when it appears that they have relented to the public pressure by dropping it from 44% to, let’s say 35%, then they get what they actually need.
And everybody is happy with having supposedly gotten what they wanted.
It’s shrewd, and still leaves us more out of pocket than what we can afford.
dailyvoice@inl.co.za
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